CHOWDAH BOWL: Ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, tee-hee. Laugh, It's Good for You, the newspaper headline read. Now, we all know that, so why is there so little laughter these days? According to educator Anne Bryan Smollin, who spoke on the subject of laughter at Chatham, it's because, "We live in a lonely and stressful culture. We need to ﬁnd the joy and humor in the moment in front of us." There's no argument with an author who can write all about tickling one's soul, so we'll settle for that and repeat CC's recipe for starting every day with a smile, a chuckle and a laugh: Read Peanuts! And if Charlie Brown, snoopy and Lucy and all those other wonderful comic strip characters don't give you a laugh, then you better see a doctor . Sandy Stuff: Wellﬂeet, if you must be reminded, has an international reputation for its oysters. Now it also has won national recognition for one of its beaches. Mayo's Beach was named one of the 10 best beaches in the United States by TripAdvisor, the world's largest on-line community. No other Cape and Islands beach was listed . Olde Dennis: The more CC reads in the Cape press about daily life and happenings in Dennis the more is the feeling the town is still wrapped up in the 20th century. When hopes for a Dennis Cultural Artists District were dashed, planner Dan Fortier said considerable opposition to artists was noted and, of course, NIMBY. Fortier told The Cape Cod Voice, "Artists are being squeezed out." There was the time Dennis showed signs of shedding its extreme conservatism, decades ago when it was named an All-American town . His name is Gordon. So, you have to know his nickname. "Flash," of course. This Gordon, however, is not one of the ordinary "Flashes." He's a VIP, and that title entitled Allyn Gordon to VIP treatment aboard the USS John F. Kennedy during its recent visit to Boston. The 91-year-old Gordon is one of Harwich's most popular citizens, a ﬁxture in uniform at all veteran events and affairs in the Harwich-Chatham region. Bill Galvin reports in The Cape Cod Chronicle that the feisty "Flash" served on the carrier Wasp during World War II and was wounded in a Japanese bombing of the carrier . GOP Dozing? The plan called for the showing of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in Truro to be a bi-partisan event. Arrangements were to be made by both the Democratic and Republican town committees. But then the Pamet Valley town was awakened to a political shock -- it doesn't have a Republican town committee! Tears for a Tap: Jake's Tap is gone, demolished to make way for a Dunkin' Donuts. And all of Falmouth and much of the Upper Cape region is spilling tears at the loss of the "old-fashioned" watering hole. The Falmouth Enterprise weeped editorially: "Jake's was popular and a lot of people will miss it Jake's had a character a certain feel. You won't get that at a chain or franchise. It takes a place and time to acquire character of the sort Jake's had." Harwich Oracle columnist Stephanie Foster says "you know when someone is suffering from cabin fever. They don't even have the energy to be cranky." That digital "Streetscape" proposal, a high-tech concept to enhance the cultural experience in Provincetown, is not winning unanimous applause. Critics call it a "techie invasion." One Cape-ender wrote to the Provincetown Banner: "Someone please, save us from 12-foot light-up electronic kiosks on Commercial Street." The Banner expressed caution that the town's multi-million-dollar selling point will not be smudged, and that's its harborfront view . It's Spring, but a Cape Cod Spring that always lacks "all the splendor, all its birds and all its blossoms, all its ﬂowers, and leaves and grasses" that Longfellow wrote about.

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You're way up there, Morris, if you visited the Barnstable County Agriculture Fair when it was held in Barnstable Village, east of Bacon Farm off the present Route 6A . You know Town of Barnstable history if you can name the village that housed ﬁve huge hotels. Answer below.

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Newsquote: "I don't think there's anyone in this room who is happy about the industry there is no mystery (that) there is a lot of pressure on our ﬁsheries." -- Paul Parker of Chatham, director of Cape Cod Hook Fishermen's Association, reporting on poor recovery of ﬁsh stocks. (In The Cape Codder).

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Press Speaks Out: " They're calling it 'Nantucket Village,' which is absurd. There will be nothing resembling Nantucket in this project. And village? It will be an urban enclave We are hoping the will of the townspeople is such that it won't (be built)." -- (Falmouth Enterprise on proposed Route 151 housing project).

"Nothing, it seems, will affect the quality of life and economic future of the Lower Cape more than the successes or failure of wastewater management -- and ultimately, potable water management. Orleans and Chatham are on the right track. The other Lower Cape towns need to get with the program." (The Cape Codder).

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Query answer: Hyannis Port.

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Quotebook: "California, where earth is here so kind that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest." (The Freixenet Book).